‘Minions & Monsters’ Tops Fourth of July Holiday Box Office, Barely Beating ‘Toy Story 5’https://english.aawsat.com/entertainment/5292474-%E2%80%98minions-monsters%E2%80%99-tops-fourth-july-holiday-box-office-barely-beating-%E2%80%98toy
‘Minions & Monsters’ Tops Fourth of July Holiday Box Office, Barely Beating ‘Toy Story 5’
This image released by Universal Pictures shows minion Henry, voiced by Pierre Coffin, left, and Goomi, voiced by Trey Parker, in a scene from Illumination's "Minions & Monsters." (Universal Pictures via AP)
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‘Minions & Monsters’ Tops Fourth of July Holiday Box Office, Barely Beating ‘Toy Story 5’
This image released by Universal Pictures shows minion Henry, voiced by Pierre Coffin, left, and Goomi, voiced by Trey Parker, in a scene from Illumination's "Minions & Monsters." (Universal Pictures via AP)
The Minions have taken down “Toy Story 5" at the July Fourth weekend box office, but not by much.
“Minions & Monsters,” the seventh film in the “Despicable Me” franchise, earned $36.4 million at the holiday weekend box office, according to studio estimates for North America. “Toy Story 5,” a juggernaut that last week beat “Supergirl,” earned an estimated $31 million.
The Minions movie, which has the devious henchlings seeking movie glory in Hollywood's Golden Age, opened on Wednesday and earned an estimated $61.4 million in its first five days, according to studio estimates. The Minions are a popular franchise globally and “Minions & Monsters” has earned $160 million worldwide in its debut week.
Audiences looking for patriotic fare amid the United States' 250th birthday celebration had “Young Washington” to consider; it opened in third place with nearly $21 million. The movie focuses on George Washington's service during the French and Indian War.
That left “Supergirl” in fourth with just under $10 million at the box office, a steep 74% drop from its disappointing opening weekend.
The weekend box office was down year-over-year about 24%, according to figures compiled by Rentrak, though this summer is up from 2025 by nearly 12%. That's due in part thanks to the low-budget Gen-Z sensations “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” which took the sixth and seventh spots, behind Steven Spielberg's “Disclosure Day.”
Disney Taps Back Catalogue -- Again -- For Live-Action ‘Moana’https://english.aawsat.com/entertainment/5292246-disney-taps-back-catalogue-again-live-action-%E2%80%98moana%E2%80%99
Dwayne Johnson poses for photographs with fans at the "Moana" experience in London, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP)
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Disney Taps Back Catalogue -- Again -- For Live-Action ‘Moana’
Dwayne Johnson poses for photographs with fans at the "Moana" experience in London, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP)
Disney's reliance on its back catalogue of characters and franchises will be underlined again next week with the release of a live-action version of "Moana", a remake of the Polynesian-themed animation hit that is only a decade old.
The original "Moana" from 2016 follows a young Polynesian girl who sets off on an adventure across the ocean, accompanied by the demigod Maui, to save her people and their atoll.
A sequel came out in 2024 and a third animated installment is in the works, while the new live-action version starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will hit screens worldwide from Wednesday.
It is a shot-for-shot rehash of the original, with the same songs and similar dialogue, directed by Thomas Kail of "Hamilton" fame.
"The way that the movie breathes is so different than animation the way that you fill a frame is quite different and I think there's an opportunity to access emotion in a distinct way," he told AFP.
With a budget estimated at 200-250 million dollars, the film is banking on spectacular special effects to draw in crowds at a time when animated sequels "Toy Story 5" and "Minions & Monsters" are riding high at the box office.
- Nostalgia -
Remakes and franchises have become a cornerstone of modern Hollywood production, despite criticism that they are a sign of declining creativity and risk-taking by the industry's big beasts.
Concepts and characters that are already familiar to viewers are seen as bankable profit-makers by under-pressure studios, while offering attractive merchandising, games and other spin-off possibilities.
Disney's appetite for live-action re-makes of its animated hits was whetted by the huge success of 2010's "Alice in Wonderland" by Tim Burton, which grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide.
"Aladdin,Beauty and the Beast," and "Lilo & Stitch" have each broken the billion-dollar level at the box office since.
"Overall, they've done very well, especially the films based on the Disney Renaissance of the 1980s and 1990s," said Stephane Durand, a pop culture and Disney specialist in France.
"The biggest hits are films that recreate the original almost shot for shot," he explained. "For people interested in storytelling, it's pretty poor. But as long as the films make a billion dollars, it will go on."
Not all have been a hit, however.
"The Little Mermaid" (2023) earned a lackluster reception, while "Snow White" (2025) proved a disappointment.
"Studios need to ensure that the charm of the original is retained and need to be extremely judicious with their creative license," Caroline Reid, a journalist at Forbes magazine specialized in the film and entertainment industries, said.
But even those that don't draw crowds to cinemas can still turn out to be commercial hits thanks to the rise of streaming.
"Many of the live-action remakes that don't succeed at the box office are hits on streaming. 'The Little Mermaid' is a good example of this," Reid said.
Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce Wedding Celebration to Light Up New Yorkhttps://english.aawsat.com/entertainment/5291760-taylor-swift-travis-kelce-wedding-celebration-light-new-york
A worker makes adjustments to a tent outside Madison Square Garden, the reported venue for the wedding celebrations of pop singer Taylor Swift and pro-athlete Travis Kelce, in New York City on July 3, 2026. (AFP)
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Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce Wedding Celebration to Light Up New York
A worker makes adjustments to a tent outside Madison Square Garden, the reported venue for the wedding celebrations of pop singer Taylor Swift and pro-athlete Travis Kelce, in New York City on July 3, 2026. (AFP)
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are widely expected to cap their three-year love story with a New York wedding celebration on Friday, ending months of speculation about the union between the pop megastar and one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history.
While neither has confirmed plans publicly, the New York Post's Page Six reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources, that the two had already wed.
Reuters was unable to confirm that report. But a heavy media presence and barricades around New York's Madison Square Garden fueled expectations of a major event, as passersby on Friday morning stopped to snap photos and videos on their phones.
Workers spent days this week unloading food and scenery into the iconic Manhattan arena, which is in its longest summer stretch without a scheduled concert or sporting event.
Scaffolding with heavy black curtains was in place, preventing crowds from spotting people arriving at the building, and a sign posted by an entrance on Thursday warned anyone entering to maintain strict confidentiality.
Officials including New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have dropped hints that something is coming, and US media have reported the pair plan a reception for 1,000 people at the start of a long holiday weekend when the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence from British rule.
The couple through a publicist on Thursday said they had donated $26 million to several charities in the city and elsewhere this week.
The buzzy event coincides with brutally hot weather. Temperatures were forecast to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) and will likely test the stamina of onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrity couple or their famous guests.
'ROYAL WEDDING'
Alison Walsh stopped with her 11-year-old daughter — one of the singer's fans — on the West 31st Street side of the arena to peer through police-lined barricades at a large white tent.
"When we heard this was going down, we wanted to be here. It is the closest thing to a royal wedding in the US," said the 46-year-old Walsh, who was visiting from Connecticut and is also a Swift fan.
The couple's love story began in 2023 when Kelce tried unsuccessfully to meet Swift backstage at one of her concerts, but succeeded in capturing her attention and warming her heart by recounting his disappointment on a podcast.
As the relationship grew, they appeared publicly together at her concerts, his Kansas City Chiefs games and on "Saturday Night Live," leading to an August 2025 engagement announcement on Instagram that read "Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married."
One of the most successful musicians of all time, Swift has won 14 Grammy Awards and shattered records with a global concert tour that made her a billionaire.
Kelce, one of the National Football League's best-known players, helped the Kansas City Chiefs win three Super Bowls alongside star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He also co-hosts the popular sports and pop culture podcast "New Heights."
RECORD-SETTING CAREER
In June, Swift was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 20 years after her first hit single.
Beginning in country music before finding pop megastardom, Swift has won an unparalleled four Grammy Album of the Year awards. And her latest, "The Life of a Showgirl," sold more copies than any other album in its first week.
Kelce first tried to meet Swift after she performed at Kansas City, Missouri's Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Chiefs, as part of her Eras Tour, a retrospective of her two-decade career.
He failed to make it through security and said on his podcast that he was "a little butthurt" he did not get the chance to meet Swift and give her a friendship bracelet bearing his phone number.
Swift was charmed, recounting on a later "New Heights" episode that the gesture reminded her of "an '80s John Hughes movie, and he was just like, standing outside of my window with a boombox and being like, 'I want to date you.'"
She said she thought, "If this guy isn't crazy, which is a big if, this is sort of what I've been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager."
‘Not Easy, but Not Impossible’: Iraq’s Film Industry Sees Slow Revivalhttps://english.aawsat.com/entertainment/5291596-%E2%80%98not-easy-not-impossible%E2%80%99-iraq%E2%80%99s-film-industry-sees-slow-revival
Street vendors gather outside the faded facade of the Granada Cinema, an early 1940s landmark, in the Bab al-Sharqi district of central Baghdad on May 26, 2026. (AFP)
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‘Not Easy, but Not Impossible’: Iraq’s Film Industry Sees Slow Revival
Street vendors gather outside the faded facade of the Granada Cinema, an early 1940s landmark, in the Bab al-Sharqi district of central Baghdad on May 26, 2026. (AFP)
In the heart of old Baghdad, legendary movie theaters stand abandoned and shrouded in dust, bearing witness to Iraq's once-vibrant cultural scene.
A few kilometers away, director Ali al-Bayati oversees his camera operators as they adjust their lenses for a scene in his upcoming horror film, which he hopes to showcase internationally as a new generation of Iraqi filmmakers drives an industry comeback.
Momentum is building, bolstered by recent international recognition for the Iraqi film "The President's Cake", which captures life under crippling sanctions during Saddam Hussein's rule.
"Reviving the cinema sector in Iraq is not easy, but it is not impossible either," Bayati told AFP.
For decades, Iraq's cultural and cinematic scenes flourished.
Film production in Iraq began in the 1940s -- notably with titles co-produced with Egypt -- reaching its peak in the 1950s.
Among the most celebrated productions of that era was Kameran Hosni's film "Said Effendi" (1956), a work recently restored as part of the Iraqi Cinematheque project supported by France, and screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.
But then everything changed.
With Saddam Hussein's rise to power in the 1970s, cinema became a propaganda tool.
This was followed by decades of war, sectarian strife and an extremist insurgency after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Hussein, ultimately snuffing out the golden age of Iraqi cinema.
Baghdad's old movie theaters that once drew film enthusiasts are now barely standing, with their faded walls, old doors and broken signs.
Dilapidated shops crowd the entrance to the Granada Cinema, with clothes hanging directly on the street. Other theaters have been repurposed as warehouses, with a few old movie posters still clinging to their walls.
- The old and the new -
In recent years, a fragile stability has begun to revive Iraqis' appetite for entertainment and returned focus to Baghdad's cultural scene.
Authorities seized the opportunity last year, launching an initiative to support 58 film projects.
But the funding pool is just four million dollars, an amount that would fund only a single project in other countries, said Wareth Kwaish of the government-led initiative.
Authorities are also working to recover Iraq's historic cinema archive in the country and abroad.
And Baghdad has signed cinematic cooperation agreements with France to support its film industry.
Producer Haider Ibrahim inspects a film reel at the National Centre for Archives and Iraqi Memory in Baghdad on June 14, 2026. (AFP)
Still, the industry remains short on funding and support, making every production a gamble.
Filmmakers rely on small grants, said Bayati, who hopes to market his movie in the US and European countries and is among those who benefited from government funding.
The key for him is gaining the trust of Iraqi audiences to "generate revenues that would lead to sustainability in work and production", he said.
Most Iraqi moviegoers today frequent multi-screen theaters in shopping malls where Hollywood and Egyptian movies dominate the screens, rather than the classic venues.
Syrian filmmaker Abdulhadi al-Rakeb, who made a documentary about Iraq's old movie theaters, said their closure has led to "the disappearance of a culture of watching films in theaters and, as a result, a decline in the very idea of filmmaking".
- 'Cautiously optimistic' -
Recently, "The President's Cake", the Iraqi film that won a prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival last year, finally started screening in Iraq.
The movie follows the story of a young girl selected to bake a cake for Saddam's birthday at a time when sanctions made it almost impossible to find the ingredients.
Although the movie was shot in Iraq, the production faced many challenges.
Director Hasan Hadi said a shortage of experienced Iraqi film crews forced him to bring in European professionals.
"The local crew were not aware of international standards," and the foreign crew were unfamiliar with the local cultural context, which created "more problems for us", he said.
According to Hadi, the lack of local crews is one of several reasons Iraqi filmmakers have been unable to work in their own country.
He believes the sector needs workshops to develop local talent, increased funding and better overall organization.
"I am cautiously optimistic," Hadi said.
"There are more people who want to tell their stories and make films, but not enough resources."
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